Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Unnecessary Technologies Dealing With Unnecessary Problems

Develop a problem. Then, come up with a solution for this unnecessary problem.

God, I love being an American.

Back in the '60's, there where some real problems. Pollution. Small towns like Portland couldn't see Mt. Hood from Barbur Boulevard on bad pollution days. Now, the distance from Barbur to Mt. Hood was fifty miles. A lot of those days where the Mount wasn't visible was due to inclement weather. But the view to Mt. Hood became an iconic standard of how to judge pollution in Portland.

Later, I moved to Astoria. The Columbia River is about five miles wide. When you couldn't see Washington from Astoria, we learned that there are things called clouds and rain. They occlude vision. When you can't see Washington from Astoria, it's raining. When you can, it's about to rain.

There isn't any pollution being created in Astoria. No visual pollution. There's no pollution being created in Knappa, Ranier, or Clatskanie. There is no pollution being created in Scappoose. And yet, the State of Oregon is trying to scale the "pollution" in Portland to the cities along the Columbia River. The worst example of all, is the Boardman Plant in...(wait for it)...Boardman.

The things that make it hard for us to see Mt. Hood from Barbur, are the things that are closing down a major power plant for the state of Oregon. Haze. The coal-fired plant at Boardman creates haze. Haze. Oh, and thanks to recent decisions from the Environmental Protection Agency, mercury. You know. Charlie Tuna stuff.

Mercury.

You have any clue how many half-assed studies have been done on Mercury? How many have been de-bunked? Autism. Mercury. "Close those coal-fired plants!!!!"

If you're looking for your local newspaper to tell you the truth, get over it. Mercury okay.

"MERCURY OKAY!!!"

Not going to happen. The political movement to grant greater power to the government, and take that power away from the people (you and me), aren't concerned with corrections for stories that mis-represent the truth. The slow accretion of misrepresentations over time, have a cumulative effect; we begin to believe that all the examples of a thing we've read about over years, is self-reinforcing. After decades of believing that the Press is actually reporting the Truth, we're reduced to reading the Press, and believing that we're reading the Truth.

Simple syllogism. But mercury isn't the hazard that we've all been told it is. Take away the autism claim, and where to do the mercury alarmists reside? What is the harm of exposure to mercury?

What if incidental exposure to mercury is simply incidental exposure to mercury? That is, there is no long-term or short-term effect?

Hysteria about mercury would end. We've been eating tuna with "elevated levels of mercury" for decades. It wasn't until the Autism Scare that mercury became an issue. And now that we find that the results were falsified, has there been a scale-back of mercury scares?

Why is it, that the EPA is so worried about mercury, when it comes to coal-fired power plants? Look, the President has been forthcoming in his statements about the "future of America."

We won't invest in "alternative" power sources until the costs of conventional power sources "have necessarily skyrocketed." How do you drive up the costs of conventional power sources? Regulate them out of business!

Easy!

The billions upon billions of dollars this President has wasted chasing his dream of "Green Technology" is getting old. The only technologies that make economic sense are those technologies that make economic sense. Take out the hundreds of billions of dollars that our federal and state governments have "GIVEN" to alternative energy sources, and you find that only coal-fired, oil-fired, and natural gas fired power plants have a product--cheap electricity--that meets the demands of a market-based supply for energy. Scare tactics? Would the Obama Administration resort to scare tactics to attempt to achieve it's goals for Green Energy?

The United States has been for years, the biggest, most robust economy on the face of the Earth.

Our President is bringing this era to a close. For whatever reasons; whether it's an end to American Imperialism, and end to White Man Rules, the end of Corporate Corruption, the end to The Wealthy Living Off the Poor Folks, the End of an Era When Corporations Are More Important Than The Middle Class, or simply, you dumb fucks don't know how to count your toes, it is clear that our President has no more understanding of what motivates business to invest, buy and create, than would a former Instructor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago.

I can't name a single technology innovation that has been revealed, since the ascendency of President Barrack Obama. I can't. Neither wind, nor rain, nor storm of night. No break-out in distribution. No break-out in solar, wind or geo-thermal. Not one single break-through, after billions have been spent. Not one.

We've created a lot of problems. Carbon, mercury, capitalism, the Rich. Lots of problems.

2 comments:

Don't forget Acid Rain. It's been years since I heard that one. Last year, Obama and buds gave Solar Trust of America $2.1 billion. Last Monday, they did a Solyndra.

Meanwhile, Portland and Sam Adams are Saving The Planet™ through "investments" in Vestas - which got some $12 million from Sam to put their North American headquarters in the old Meier&Frank warehouse in NW Portland (and shortly after receiving the money, the wind-turbine manufacturer laid off 1000 people). Wilsonville flirted with Saving The Planet, but their mayor decided that giving Solopower $11 million wasn't a good use of funds - so the company went running (where else) into Sam's arms, and he welcomed them with $40 million. The company supposedly will produce the same kind of "product" that Solydra made: thin-film photovoltaics - indeed, the two companies were neighbors in a SoCal campus - so it's safe to assume that after the execs get their bonuses, they'll be forced to close their NE Portland facility. But Sam's livin' the dream; making Portland an international "hub" of green. "Hub" seems to be the latest term-craze.